I need to generate a solo but only during a set measure range. I'm pretty sure this can be done but, having a difficult time figuring it out.

I see something that says to solo during 1st chorus, middle chorus, last chorus....

I don't understand these "chorus" things. I have the whole song written and just need to generate a solo during, say, measures 17-30 and then stop soloing.

Any help?

Thanks.

Tom,

It can be done. It's one of the more advanced techniques of BIAB.


Firstly... before doing anything, save your song with a new name. Once you've done that, use this version to practise with. That way, if things don't work out as well as you'd like, you can always easily get back to the original file.


Have a look at the image below.

1. Open the Soloist dialogue window (#1, #2 on the image).

2. Scroll through the window to select your soloist (#3).

3. Select "Custom" (#4).

4. Set the starting bar of your solo (#5) and enter how long the solo should play for (#6).

7. Generate the solo (#7).

If you don't like the solo generated, use CTRL+Z to undo it and then repeat the above to create another solo. It's also possible to delete the solo using the 'Kill' option that's found under "Soloist | Edit soloist track | Form".

Also, the link below will take you to some PG Music video clips that might be useful as you start your journey.

• http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.bbwin.htm

Regards,
Noel

Another possible way is to generate the Soloist for the whole song, then use F5 to mute and unmute the Soloist track where needed. In your case, most of the Soloist track in the song will be muted.

For this to work on only one chorus instead of, say, all three, first Unfold the song to one long song. Otherwise, you would hear a soloist each time bar 17 comes along.

The easiest way is to use a DAW.

Export your tracks from BB or RB to a DAW and use volume envelopes to bring things in and out as needed.

That's how I do it. I choose the path of least resistance when I'm working on music. I don't want to get bogged down in trying to figure out how to do something complicated when there's a much easier way to do things.

ALL of my songs are done in this very manner.

In BIAB, the chorus of the song is defined as the whole song. You see three numbers at the top. The first number indicates where the song starts (because you can have an intro of any number of measures); the second number indicates where the song ends; and the third number indicates how many times to repeat the song between the first and second numbers entered. The defaults are 1, 32, 3 (start at bar 1, play 32 bars, and repeat three times.

So the first chorus would be the first time through; the middle chorus would be the second time through, and the last chorus would be the third time through (using the default settings).

If instead you framed your song as 5, 36, 4; that means your song has a four bar intro (bars 1-4) and starts on bar 5. The song runs until bar 36 and repeats bars 5 through 36 four times. In that case the first chorus is the first time through; the middle chorus(es) are the second and third time through, and the last chorus is the fourth time through.

Now what lots of folks do is just enter their song linearly, starting at the beginning and writing every verse one after the other. When you do this, you usually just set your song to start at bar 1 and end after the last verse and only repeat 1 time. When you do this, the concept of first, middle, and last verses don't apply (except for the first verse), because there is only one verse.

There is also a command to take a song that uses multiple verses and unfold it into one long continuous song that repeats only one time:

Edit | Song Form | Unfold

This will take the default 1, 32, 3 and change it to 1, 96, 1.

Hope this helps.

I am a BIAB newbie, but stumbled across another way to add a solo for just specific sections of my song. The method mentioned above by Noel is probably the 'correct' (and possibly easier) way, but my method worked pretty well for me, and more importantly I accidentally stumbled on ways to be a lot more creative with how I could put songs together.

Basically it's the F5 key. Put the cursor at a particular bar and hit F5, and you'll get an 'Edit Settings for Current Bar XX' window with a ton of settings. Mute certain tracks, turn tracks back on, have certain tracks start to fade in or out, change patches, even change harmony! It looks really powerful if somewhat complicated.

I had created a rough song (it's up on soundcloud if you're interested, see below) that had Bass, Piano, Drums, Guitar and Pedal Steel. I then added Guitar 2 and Guitar 3, and selected two solo guitar RealTrack styles that I liked.

Measure 1: hit F5 and mute Guitar 2 and Guitar 3.
Bar 25, F5, mute the Pedal Steel and unmute Guitar 2 for a tasty solo, mute again at bar 30 or whatever and umute Pedal.
Ditto process for the final solo.

This gave me a lot of control over what was on/off during the solo.

Once I had an arrangement and solos I liked, I dumped everything into a DAW for some tweaking (still needs to be mixed properly, guitar parts are slightly loud...) but I'm pretty happy with the initial result so far.

https://soundcloud.com/scott-urista/until-we-meet-again



EDIT: er, on preview...what Matt said....

Yes, you're doing it very nicely.

Which is what's so cool about BIAB...multiple ways to get things done. Everyone's workflow doesn't need to be the same.

Glad you figured it out.

Isn't that the same as right click on the bar for a menu that includes bar settings?

Yes, exactly. That's what F5 is.

Thanks all. I hate getting bogged down by the tools I use to create with. I'm sure all of your suggestions will get me there.

Thanks again.

Assuming you are going to use the soloist track, if you click on the Soloist feature, then select the "Custom" button, you can specify which bars to do your solo.